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Suncoast Pasco News

Missing Fact

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THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: February 12, 2008

The County Commission received a lot of calls last week from people expressing opposition to expanding the Pasco County Resource Recovery Facility. What spurred the calls – a flyer that appeared in many Pasco mailboxes last week. The mass mailing warned of possible pollution from an expanded resource recovery facility, which burns garbage to produce electricity. The flyer conveniently listed the number of the County Commission office.

We initially were a little confused when we saw the flyer. Many Pasco officials have appeared more interested in any or all alternatives to expanding the resources recovery plant, including mandatory recycling. The plant operates at or near its design capacity, so something has to give.
Plant expansion has officials wary because, for one thing, the cost. The tab would be $150 million by the latest – but not all that new – estimate.

Then there were the months of protest back in the 1980s, when the county was considering building the resource recovery plant. At the time, many sincerely motivated people were convinced the resource recovery plant would turn a good deal of its home in northwestern Pasco into a toxic wasteland. The best we can tell, that hasn't happened. Still, if the county were to seek regulatory approval to expand the resource recovery plant, there will be similar apocalyptic predictions.

We became less perplexed when we learned, and reported in print and online Saturday, that the group which sent out last week's flyer has links to a Largo-based firm that wants to build a recycling and bioreactor landfill facility near Dade City, i.e. a potential competitor for the county resource recovery plant. The mailer doesn't mention this.

We just thought people should know the rest of the story, to steal a well-turned phrase.

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